Roger Clemens won his record seventh Cy Young today and his first in the National League. I didn't have him on my ballot, but what the hey, he is the best pitcher I've ever seen, so what the heck.

Here's a comparison of the pitchers who received Cy Young votes and a few of the more salient non-vote getters based on Bill James' Win Shares, Baseball Prospectus' Value Over Replacement Player (VORP), and Baseball Reference's Adjusted ERA (ERA+). I have split the table in two to fit on the page but note the inconsistency between the players' performance and their votes:

Now the final rankings:

It's particularly odd that Ben Sheets, who was second in my comparison, received just one third-place vote. Well, then again a losing record (12-14) will do that.

Anyway, Clemens becomes just the fourth pitcher to win a Cy Young in both leagues. Those four are as follows:

There are any number of eccentricities—I am loath to call them records—surrounding Clemens winning his seventh Cy Young. First, the stretch between his first and last Cy Young is the longest by 8 years of any pitcher:

He also becomes the first pitcher to win the award in a year predominately after he turned 40. Here are the oldest (Note the age represent the pitcher's age as of July 1 of the given year):

Actually, Clemens and Johnson are just the second and third pitchers to receive votes after turning 40. The other was Gaylord Perry in 1978, who just turned 40 on September 15 of that year (technically he is considered as being 39 for the season).

Clemens also becomes the 25th pitcher to win a Cy Young for a league in which he had fewer than 20 wins:

Of the above pitchers, the top nine of ten were relievers. Valenzuela, Cone, and Maddux pitched in a strike year. And Sutcliffe started 1984 in the American League. So, technically 17 is the lowest for a Cy Young-winning starter in a full season. Maybe Randy Johnson only getting 16 scuttled his prospects this year though it's hard to belief that two wins made all the difference, especially considering that Clemens pitched on a playoff-caliber team and Johnson pitched for the worst team in baseball. At least they didd't bite on Roy Oswalt's 20 wins.